Justice For Some
by skycloud86
Summary: A month after Day Three, and Jack gets a surprise.
1. Prologue

_**A/N – Story is set around a month after Day Three. My OC Alex Myers may or may not be involved in later chapters (not sure if I want to put him in).**_

A month had passed. Four weeks since Chappelle died, Thirty one days since he killed Nina Myers. Two fortnights since he had chopped off Chase's hand. Countless hours and seconds since his drug addiction had been found, since he had lost Claudia, since Tony had been arrested for treason, although few believed him truly guilty. Jack Bauer was laid on his bed, with so much on his mind that he felt the mother of all migraines starting. It didn't help that he was going cold turkey with the heroin, trying to free himself from the sweet misery he had inflicted on himself for both professional and personal reasons. Professional in the sense that it had helped him gain access to the inner circle of the Salazar cartel. Personal in the sense that it had surely eased his pain since the death of his wife, Teri, all those years ago.

"Are you sure about this?," Michelle Dessler spoke on the phone at CTU. She had not expected this call, and she certainly had not expected a call about Jack. Sighing quietly as the person on the other end adamantly repeated themselves, Michelle could only agree.

"Fine, just let me go talk to him first, OK?," she asked, and thanked the person politely as they agreed. The news that she was going to deliver to Jack was something that she felt a friend should deliver, to help ease the blow. Grabbing her coat on the way out, she stopped and thought of Tony. Hoping that he wouldn't hear the news too soon, and hoping that he was doing OK in prison, she hurried towards her car. They had only given her a couple of hours, which was all they could have given her, and she knew that she had to be quick.

Jack, now sat up at the end of his bed, was staring out of his window. His apartment overlooked one of Los Angeles' busier roads, and he found himself counting the number of black cars that went past. It seemed that almost half of the cars were black, as if they were part of a huge funeral convoy snaking it's way slowly through the city. He looked across the street and saw the grey buildings on the other side of the road. Wondering who lived in the apartments, he considered the possibility that their life wasn't like his, that they never had to deal with death and evil. Hearing a knock at the door, he first decided to ignore it. That usually worked, but the person was stubborn. Hearing her voice, recognising her, he wondered what the hell she wanted. Her voice sounded worried, anxious, and he knew that he had to find out what she wanted. Opening the door, he noticed that she looked upset, her eyes watery. Gesturing for her to go inside, he wondered if something had happened to Tony.

"What is it, Michelle?," Jack asked, worried for his friend. He had seen her upset many times over the past few weeks, but this time felt different. Waiting patiently as Michelle wiped her eyes, his mind and heart were racing.

"It's about you, Jack," Michelle replied, dreading to tell Jack the news.

"Me?," Jack responded, surprised. He wondered if it was about the drug use.

"We got a call from Division about half an hour ago, Jack. They said...they said that the police are gonna arrest you," Michelle said, her voice breaking.

"Arrest me? For what?," Jack spoke, his voice slightly tinged with anger. He hadn't done anything wrong, and Division knew it!

"I dunno, Jack, they just said that LAPD are coming in a couple of hours to take you into custody," Michelle replied. She looked at his face, and she knew that deep down inside him, a part of him was relieved. Part of him wanted this, to finally be judged for his actions in protecting the innocent. It didn't matter to him what the outcome was, so long as his friends, Kim, were safe and protected from evil.

They had sat in silence for the past hour, like a prisoner on Death Row on the morning of his execution. The fateful knocks on the door sounded like deep thuds, and Michelle squeezed Jack's hand gently as he looked at her. Standing up slowly, he made his way to the door and opened it. Two police officers, one male and one female, were stood there. Reading him his rights and placing handcuffs on his hands as they did so, Jack asked them what the charges against him were.

"The murder of Nina Myers," the female cop replied, and Jack couldn't believe it. Were they really going to consider putting him in jail for the rest of his life for killing the creature he once had loved, before hating with so much passion? As they led him into the elevator, he looked at Michelle, gazing into her eyes for as long as he could before the elevator doors closed.


	2. Questions

_**A few hours later...**_

Jack was alone in the interrogation room, his hands cuffed and his head bowed. His shoes and belt had been taken away, and any possessions he had on him were confiscated. Taking the time to think, he wondered why he was being charged with Nina's murder. Sure, he knew that it was indeed an act of murder – he had meant to kill her – but he had done it for the greater good. Nina was simply too dangerous a person to be allowed to exist. Even so, Jack knew the law, and he knew that his actions may have had good intentions, but that wouldn't stop a jury from sending him to the execution chamber. His concentration was broken when a cop entered the room. He was blond like Jack, but taller and younger, with deep green eyes.

"Mr Bauer, I'm Officer James Aylesworth. Do you have any questions before we begin?," the officer told him in a Californian accent which sounded like it belonged to a surfer.

"I would like to know why the hell I'm being charged now! You could have charged me weeks ago, so what's changed?," Jack asked, raising his voice slightly. The officer cleared his throat before answering.

"I cannot give you any details at the moment, sir. As for our timing, we were building a case against you which, I'm sure you can appreciate, is hard when the crime took place in a federal building by a federal agent. We've faced a lot of opposition from CTU in regards to this case," James replied.

"Do you know why I killed her? I killed her because she was going to kill my daughter, in the same building where she murdered my wife!," Jack yelled angrily, before calming himself down. The officer looked shocked, and Jack gained satisfaction from it.

"I am sorry about your wife, sir, but we've reviewed the footage of Ms Myers' death, and your daughter appears to have left the scene quite a few minutes before you shot Ms Myers," James told him. Jack looked at him for a moment, wondering how to respond. The problem was that very few people even within CTU really understood the struggle between him and Nina over the years. It was if they were in their own world, where the only goals were control, and survival. If you lost control, it would not be long before you lost your life, and Nina was the first one to truly lose control. She had lost it when she was lying on the floor, totally at Jack's mercy. He could have arrested her, sent her to jail to await execution, but he knew that the only way to end the struggle was that one of them had to die.

"Look, if I hadn't killed her then, I would be indirectly responsible for any deaths she caused afterwards. The footage may make her look like a victim, but minutes before her death, she killed numerous doctors who were simply trying to save her life. Nina Myers was a dangerous person, and I believe that there is no prison on earth that could hold her indefinitely," Jack said. He didn't like killing her, but he had felt it necessary to do so. James nodded, before leaning forward.

"Can I suggest something, Mr Bauer? Take a plea bargain for manslaughter. You'll spend far less time in jail then you would for murder," the officer suggested, but Jack simply scoffed.

"I'm not going to beg for less time in jail for something I felt was needed to protect innocent people, officer," Jack replied firmly. He was getting tired of the pointless talking, which did nothing but bore the people involved. James nodded before standing up and leaving the room, unsure of what to do next. He had a lot of sympathy for Jack, but couldn't understand why he was being so stubborn. The guy could face the death penalty, yet he seemed to be more annoyed at the fact that they even considered his actions to be criminal.

At the FBI morgue, an autopsy was being carried out on Nina's body. No such procedure had taken place at CTU as the cause of death had been obvious, but now that her death was being investigated, it was important to clarify the facts of her final moments.

Dr Alberta Cuthbert, the pathologist for the Los Angeles branch of the FBI, was beginning the autopsy.

"The subject is a white female, early thirties, approximately 5 foot 5 inches tall and weighing 110 pounds. The only apparent wounds are a scar over the carotid, one gunshot wound to the shoulder and three gunshot wounds to the chest," Alberta spoke into her recorder as she examined the body.

"Official cause of death as listed by CTU was multiple gunshot wounds, which appears to be consistent with the wounds suffered by the subject. It appears as if the shoulder wound was incurred first, followed by a fatal shot to the heart. Two more followed post-mortem, which suggests that the person who killed the subject intended to kill her, as well as suggesting that her death was violent," she continued. Alberta had not been given that much information about either Nina or Jack, but looking at the body and at the wounds, she could tell that the subject's death was not exactly the self-defence plea she had heard from the CTU pathologist. Placing her recorder down, she noticed a massive scar on Nina's back. Running a gloved finger down it, she concluded that it had been caused by laceration, and was probably years old. Wondering what on earth had happened to Nina, who had been of similar age to Alberta, she decided to continue with the autopsy and leave Nina's history to CTU.

Jack was now sat in a cell, which consisted of a small room with breezeblock walls painted white, a metal bunkbed, a porcelain sink and toilet, a small wooden table and chair, and one wall made up of steel bars, with the door in the middle. A small shelf was on the wall above the table, and on it were a few books, which Jack assumed were either left there by the cops for prisoners to read, or that they belonged to a potential cellmate. Realising that he was going to be in the cell until they could move him to a jail, he laid back on the bottom bunk, and closed his eyes. If he was denied freedom of movement, he knew that he always had freedom of thought.


	3. Meetings

_**The following morning...**_

Jack rubbed his eyes and sat up. It had been a rough and sleepless nights, and he had woken up may times, sweating. Nina was in his nightmares, and for the first time he was feeling nervous about the trial. He had been confident that no jury would convict him of her murder, but now he was beginning to see that, without the history and knowledge of his relationship with Nina, the jury would see not the necessary end of a terrorist, but the violent murder of a person. Hearing footsteps approach his cell, he looked in their direction in anticipation. Seconds later, a guard appeared with a small, thin black woman, who carried a briefcase. She was the first to approach his cell, and the first to speak.

"Hello Mr Bauer, I'm Janet Smith, and I'll be your lawyer for the trial," she spoke in a soft Calfiornian accent. The guard approached the door before unlocking it, then gesturing to Jack to come out.

Soon afterwards, Jack was in the same room he had been in yesterday, except this time he was given a drink and he had no handcuffs on his wrists. Janet sat at the other side of the table to him, her briefcase on the table. Jack wondered what she thought of his actions.

"It's obvious that you killed Nina Myers, Jack, but what we have to prove is that your actions were legitimate. Now, I hear you are claiming self-defence, but I've seen the tape and it appears that you were in no immediate danger from Ms Myers," Janet spoke, looking straight at Jack.

"She was going for her gun. I know she was injured and lying on the ground, but I knew Nina Myers, and I know that even then she was still a risk to other people," Jack replied. Janet nodded before contemplating his answer. She knew that she and Jack faced an uphill struggle, but she felt confident that she could get him acquitted.

"I've heard that you considered Ms Myers to be quite a threat. Preventing someone from potentially causing harm in the future could be a very strong defence, if we can show that Ms Myers was likely to do so," Janet spoke as she scribbled a note on a legal pad.

A hour passed before the conversation came to a close, and as Janet stood up to leave the room, Jack decided to ask her about Kim.

"Janet, is it possible for me to see my daughter, Kim?," Jack asked, and Janet nodded. She didn't want Jack to lose hope, and keeping him away from his daughter was obviously not going to be a good idea.

As Janet left the room, Jack thought about that night. He had turned the corner, and seen Nina and Kim pointing guns at each other. Not wanting to risk losing his daughter, he had shot Nina in the shoulder, so that she was incapacitated rather than killed. Even though he knew she was useless to CTU, he didn't want to kill her immediately. Convincing Kim to leave the room, he had gazed into Nina's panicked and weary eyes, and had asked her if she did indeed have any more information. The question itself could have been interpreted by either of them in a million ways, and was spoken in their own language, a language spoken only by them. As he shot bullet after bullet into her body, the anger left him and, when she laid there with eyes wide open, he felt bitter sadness.

"Dad?," Kim's voice could be heard as she entered the room. Her eyes were red and it was obvious that she had been crying. As they embraced each other, Jack wondered if fighting the charges was worth it. He knew that the trial was going to be long and stressful, and he didn't know if Kim would be able to stand it.

"I'm sorry for all of this, Dad. I should never have gone after her," Kim spoke as they sat down at the table. Jack shook his head as she spoke.

"It was going to happen whether you were involved or not, Kim," Jack spoke quietly, as if he felt guilty for what he was saying. He knew that whether Kim had gone after her or not, that his struggle with Nina had to end sometime, with one of them dead.

"I want to testify, Dad. It's important to me that I help defend you," Kim said with determination.

"That's fine Kim, but be careful. Lawyers love to trip people up," Jack replied.

Later that night, as Jack settled into bed for another night of broken sleep and bad dreams, he went through his defence. He looked at it from a neutral point of view, trying to see where the jurors might or might not be sympathetic to him. Determined to be acquitted of all charges, he wanted to make sure that his defence would be as strong as possible.


End file.
